We moved to the Boston area when I was a kid in the early 80s and the exact same things you described were said then. So either it’s not true or just taking a heckuva long time

Portland, ME is just far enough from Boston that it's not feasible to do any regular commute unless you really, really want to live there.

This is very true. I commuted from Newburyport MA (20 minutes south of Portsmouth NH) to Boston by bus for a few years. (My other option was MBTA commuter rail, which was further from my house and ran into North Station, which was farther from work.) The bus ride was routinely 1 hour 20 minutes, so add another 20 to get to Portsmouth.

(Edit: I’ve also done the Providence, RI to Boston commute, by rail, which was just over an hour typically.

Don’t forget that commuting works well when your job is near free parking/train/bus. It gets pretty bad when you have to add another 20 minute subway wait/ride in once in town...)

Damn dude how was it possible that the MBTA was further than driving all the way up to Portsmouth? The Newburyport commuter rail station is dead center of town. Was this before they opened the station up there?

Sorry if I wasn’t clear. The bus runs Portsmouth NH -> Newburyport, MA -> South Station. (No drive to Portsmouth necessary.)

The train is on the Newburyport/Newbury town line, so not quite the center of town... but that’s a quibble. Parking for the train isn’t free either, and tickets cost more than the bus. The busses run more frequently too (they’re smaller, so it’s like breaking one big train into pieces.)